of paper sunflowers and empty hearts
by dry-ink
Summary: After a dreadful night during their 6th year, both Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy went on different paths, only to find themselves crossing each other again five years after the war, but everything was different with Draco Malfoy. A DMxHG story set after the war ended.
1. prologue

_**earth from the outer space is full of emptiness.**_

 _ **and you are the one who could kill all this emptiness.**_

 _ **you are the one, you are the only one.**_

 _ **i found the way, i found the way to you.**_

 _ **then i go away, why i turn away?**_

 _ **\- The Way by tigapagi**_

 _Draco Malfoy had been walking in circle aimlessly for what seemed like hours, a single sweat fell down from his temple albeit the rather chilly weather outside. He could feel his heart beat a little more rapidly, the more he thought about it the more he felt anxious, it came to the point where he might start throwing up. The pale boy then took a deep breath before settling down under an old oak tree just near the bank of the lake, the moon was bright enough to lighten up the darkness and its reflection on the lake gave some sort of calming sensation to anyone who saw it. Just as he began to feel agitated, he heard the melodic voice of hers._

 _"Draco!" she called out as she ran towards the taller boy who quickly stood up and took a few steps towards her. She waited for him to open up his arms and embrace her, but he just stood still without even saying a word._

 _"I know I'm late and I am terribly sorry, but Professor McGonagall required my assistance." the curly haired girl quickly apologised for she thought he might be upset with her for being twenty minutes late for their appointment._

 _Instead of getting the usual playful pout from him, all she got was just a simple answer of 'it's okay'._

 _Hermione pulled out her wand and a piece of paper from the pocket of her robe. Her mouth quietly muttered a spell as her wand pointing sharply at the piece of paper lying on the palm of her hand. A smile grew on her face when the paper slowly turned into a beautiful yellow sunflower._

 _"Take it, Draco."_

 _Draco reluctantly offered his left hand, letting the shorter girl transferring the sunflower from her hand to his. When her soft hands brushed against his, she immediately thought that he would be taking her by the waist, lifting her up to spin her in the early November air. Instead, he only mumbled a soft and hesitant 'thank you'._

 _The unsatisfying reaction she got caused Hermione to furrow her eyebrows, trying to analyze his facial expression and the small movement he made with his hands and the paper sunflower she just gave him. As soon as she saw his uncomfortable movement and blank facial expression, she put two and two together and realised that there was something wrong, "Draco? Are you alright? You look unwell."_

 _"Granger, I need to talk to you." he began._

 _His eyes stared at hers, provoking her to do the same thing. The first thing she noticed when she stared at the grey orbs of his weren't the calming colour she would always find herself drowning in, but it was the hideous bags under his eyes. It was not hard to notice that Draco had been acting odd since the beginning of the school year._

 _"Is it about last night? Is it about me not giving you a goodnight kiss?" she asked before smiling sheepishly, instead he shook his head and spoke coldly, "It's about something else."_

 _"Draco, you're scaring me!" she claimed, trying to shake off her terrible assumptions and then letting out a soft laugh. The soft laugh that Draco was very keen on, and now it was as though it no longer hold any effect on him, aside for pain. She watched as his expression remained the same, emotionless. The sudden realisation struck her as she became well aware that this was not going to be a decent conversation._

 _"Please don't say what I think you're about to say."_

 _He let out a deep sigh, and at that moment she knew._

 _"Draco, please." she pleaded, her eyes began to get heavier and heavier from the waters which had begun to build up on the corner of her eyes._

 _"Draco."_

 _He looked away and stare at the dark and empty field, he couldn't bear to see her on such state and the reason was not because he didn't want to know that he had terribly hurt her, but merely because he knew that by the time their eyes met, he would end up clutching her in his arms while kissing away all her tears and told her that everything would be alright. However, that would be simply unfair for her._

 _"I can no longer be with you - it's over." he stated firmly._

 _"No, don't say that! You promised Draco!" she began screaming as her voice cracked on each words, her eyes were already wet with the tears she could no longer hold back._

 _"We would never work out together, there's no future ahead of us." he said, still avoiding her eyes as he searched for anywhere to look at, anywhere but her eyes._

 _She stared at him yet again and only to find him looking at the sunflower in his hands, she digested all his words and then sniffled, "You said we'd try to make things work. You said it after the first time we kissed under that oak tree."_

 _"Stop being obstinate, Granger." he sneered, his voice remained loud and clear._

 _"Malfoy! Why won't you look at me? Look at me and tell me that you are lying right now." she cried out as she carelessly wiped away her tears with the palm of her hands._

 _"Coward." she muttered under her breath, loud enough for him to hear as he quickly turned his gaze. Under the dim light of the moon, he could see her puffy red eyes were now staring at him intensely. It was as though her eyes were filled with sorrow and also a hint of rage. She looked like a mess, even more of a mess compared to him._

 _"Look me in the eyes and tell me truth." she demanded, taking a hold of his hand and when their hands were merely touching each other, he immediately pull it away from hers before he scoffed mockingly, "You don't understand do you?"_

 _"You are beneath me, Granger." he paused._

 _"You are just a pathetic filthy mudblood." he taunted, blankly gazing at her. It was not a long interval before her hand raised up and met his pale cheek, causing his head to snap at the same direction of the movement of her hands, the slap immediately left an ugly red mark that would be visible for days. Hermione glared at him in disgust and loath, the sadness in her eyes was now replaced with pure anger and disappointment. She could feel the burning sensation in her heart, it surely wasn't the first time Malfoy had called her a mudblood and yet this one left a stinging feeling, as if it wounded her mentally for she thought he might love her enough to not say the repulsive word, but she might be wrong after all._

 _"I can't believe you! It's true what Harry and Ron said, you will never change, you are still a foul and evil creature."_

 _She took a long and deep breath before she spoke again, "All you ever have is an empty heart,"_

 _Hermione immediately walked away from him, only to turn around one more time as she watched the man who now stood 3 meters away from her, "and that fake sunflower will forever be the evidence." the brown eyed girl remarked as she walked away from him in a faster pace, still wiping her tears with her hands._

 _And Draco stayed in his current position while digesting every bit of her words in his head, regretting each words he had spoken to her as he clutched the paper sunflower in his hands._

* * *

 **Author's note:**

 **This is a new Dramione fanfiction that I've been working on, I hope you like it, and if you do please don't forget to review/fav/follow as I'll be focusing on this one and 'Transcendece' more. If you have any questions regarding my works, you can hit me up on tumblr under the name vague-sight**

 **Cheers!**


	2. of chamomile tea and old friends

_**fault her further on**_

 _ **all her flaws were gone**_

 _ **covered in everything, coveted all at once**_

 _ **everything covering, everything all at once**_

 _ **but i would fake, i would hate,**_

 _ **i would break every inch of my love.**_

 _ **-Alps by Novo Amor ft Ed Tullett**_

Draco had been running around and around the office this whole afternoon and running wasn't something he was unfamiliar with. It had been a very long day already for Draco and it was not even 1 PM. Sometimes he would wonder why he was living his mid-twenty life this way, but then he would be reminded why once he stepped inside his empty flat. Life had been very hard for one Draco Malfoy for the past few years. Just right after the war ended and Voldemort was defeated, his life went down along with the Dark Lord himself. The Daily Prophet and their nasty choice of words and almost the entire Wizarding World of England knew exactly why the Malfoys hadn't been heard in years. After being stripped out of his magic, there was no other reason why Draco should stay in the world where he was seen as a social pariah, even if it meant he would crawl from the bottom of the pit he called a muggle-life and it wasn't like he chose to live his life that way anyway, but at least he began to made peace with his own past.

Draco still remembered everything about that dreadful day. The day where his family went on the trial, the day his father was sent to Azkaban, the day he was sentenced to live a more unfortunate life, the day he was forced to say goodbye to the only person who ever cared for him, his mother; Narcissa Malfoy wept during the trial, not only that she'd lose her husband she also would witness her only son lose a part of him. And yet the only thing that made it even worse for Draco was the fact that Hermione Granger wasn't there to witness the most humiliating point of his life. Both of Hermione's best friends were there along with what's left of the Order. He still remembered how Ronald Weasley abruptly exclaimed that the younger Malfoy should also be sent to Azkaban to accompany his old man, that was until Harry calmly said that his actions back in the war weren't considered as bad compared to what Lucius Malfoy had done and he claimed that he should be sentenced to a life without magic. Draco begged them not to do that, begging; something he never done in his life, but the decision was already made and there was nothing he could do to change their minds.

The once Slytherin prince was now working in a corporate life, and he wasn't proud of what he was doing. Draco would always say that his life was quite terrible, he had to live the same routine over and over again; wake up at 7 AM, make himself a cup of coffee, go to work, listen to his boss rambling on about his co-workers unsatisfying performances, try to not scream at his subordinates for not doing their job right, go have lunch, finish his job and other paperworks, go back to his two-bedrooms flat, prepare a simple dinner or if not go to the small Italian restaurant a few blocks away from his flat, read a muggle book to entertain himself, and then go to sleep; and he had grown tired of the exact same routine he'd done for the past three years, although on Fridays he would go out with some friends to a pub near his flat, but other than that day he couldn't help but feel lonely. His mother would visit him once or twice a month, Narcissa did so just to make sure her son didn't go mad and turn to somewhat a lunatic, and as for Draco, his mother's visits thus far were the only good thing about his life. Narcissa would provide her son with food, clothes and everything that had anything to do with her son's welfare, and she would try to persuade him to go live with her again, and if her persuasion didn't work (again), she would end up filling him in with everything that went on in the wizarding world, though Draco only listened to hear halfheartedly while resisting the urge to ask about a particular person he had in mind.

The sound of drops of water pounding against the big glass window on her left side was the only audible sound her eardrums could manage to catch, the sound of three people chatting across the room weren't even heard from the loud sound of rain and thunders. Hermione let out a soft sigh before carefully stirred her chamomile tea three times clockwise after adding another spoonful of sugar, she scooped up the small daisy-like flower that was used as the garnish, using the small teaspoon to get rid of it so she wouldn't accidentally swallow it and put it on th sauce. A damp book was sitting on the right side of the teacup, the papers which had turned yellow out of age were wet from being exposed with a few drops of rain. The curly haired woman was just strolling around the Muggle street after purchasing the old book at the second-hand bookshop right around the corner when the rain started to pour from the sky, if only she was in Diagon Alley she would cast a shielding charm to prevent herself from getting wet, but she wasn't. Thankfully she saw the small café which she immediately ran to as she covered her curly hair with the thick book, hence the soggy book.

Hermione pulled the cup slowly and steadily to the tip of her lips before sipping a few milliliters of the warm tea, after feeling like she had enough, she placed back the teacup on the table. The red lipstick she was wearing left out a stain at the side of the cup, she exhaled sharply at the small mess she created ;and Hermione Granger wasn't one who could stand with a small amount of mess moreover bigger one. She raised from her seat only to walk to the counter. A petite young woman was standing behind the counter with a smile plastered on the face.

"Can I please have some napkins?"

"There," the blond young woman said lazily from behind the counter, pointing at the small wooden napkin holder as her smile changed to a more of forced one. Hermione was about to make a comment on the rude conduct, but she decided to not do that and instead took two of those napkins and then muttered a quiet thank you. Right when she was about to step aside, she heard the sweet sound of the bells chiming coming from the door behind her. She wasn't bothered to turn around, but the sound of wet shoes stomping against the wooden floor somehow irritated her, and so she hurriedly walk back to her seat and sat down quietly with her back facing the newly entered customer.

The customer smiled, "I'll have my usual please, Tracy."

The young lady smiled genuinely, "Anything else?"

"Please don't bother putting them in a bag,"

"I might stay here for a while," the customer added, handing out the money to the girl.

"Tough day at the office?"

He sighed and rolled his eyes in utter annoyance, "You have no idea."

Hermione heard the conversation between the two of them vividly as she tried to focus herself on reading the first chapter of the sticky wet book. Her curly locks were covering her face as her head was tilted down, reading the book which was lying on the table. As she was about to reach the second chapter of the book, her right bicep jolted forward as she felt an abrupt push from behind much to her own annoyance.

She groaned in pain, rubbing her bicep gently as she muttered a few swearing words under her breath, evidently indicating her obvious displeasure.

"I'm really sorry, Miss," the sound of manly voice spoke, apologizing for his clumsiness.

 _Of course it was a male, no wonder why it hurts a lot_ , Hermione thought to herself as she turned her head to the right to see the man who just pushed her upper arm harshly. She shot him a look of discontent, but her stare quickly changed to a sudden look of shock.

"Draco _?_ " the curly haired woman asked, as both her voice and face were filled with disbelief as she saw the familiar blond haired and pointed face man in front of her, the same look of stun was also painted on his face, signifying that he too recognised her.

"Granger," he called out uncomfortably, trying to change his expression back to his usual straight face.

Hermione bit her lower lip, "I haven't heard from you since -"

"Look, if you're just going to insult me or laugh at me, I suggest you to find another person to ridicule because I really have no time for it," he cut her suddenly before letting her say any more word, earning a very stunned look from her.

"Draco," she sighed, "I didn't mean it that way," she spoke again, this time softer.

He scoffed, "Of course you didn't,"

"Would you mind sitting with me?" she asked only for him to nod sedately in response.

The two people sat across each other in silence, the cashier girl had came to the table to drop off Draco's order, and the only interaction exchanged was between Draco and the cashier girl with the name tag that said 'Tracy'. Hermione somehow couldn't manage to get a word out of her mouth, all she did was staring at the half filled cup of chamomile tea while stirring it slowly.

"I see you haven't changed," he said, breaking the silence.

"Excuse me?" she asked in confusion as she furrowed her eyebrows.

He sighed heavily before pointing at the tea and the chamomile on the saucer, "Your tea preference, I see you still fancy a cup of hot chamomile tea,"

She nodded her head silently and smiled a little, "They're the best-,"

"For rainy days," they both said in unison, causing the both of them to chuckle softly.

But now Draco was staring at her, observing every inch of her face as he tried to find if anything had changed, and somethings indeed changed. Hideous bags were formed under her eyes, and her lips were pursed together as if she tried to keep quiet, but her eyes were staring back at him.

"What _exactly_ do you want, Granger?" he questioned, still observing the brown eyed girl.

"Me? What do you mean?" she asked questioningly.

"The last time I checked, you could barely look at me, let alone speak to me," he scowled defiantly.

Hermione took a deep breath, "After the war, after what you went through."

"You mean after what _they_ made me went through?" he corrected, his tone sounded challenging, and it somehow succeeded on making Hermione uncomfortable .

"Well," she stopped for a while to inhale the oxygen, "I didn't think it was wise to keep holding grudge against you,"

He scoffed mockingly, "So now it's okay for you to try to reconcile? It was your little friends' idea to torture me like this."

She stopped stirring her cup of tea and turned to glare at him intensely, her eyes were narrowly looking at him and her face had gone red in anger, "Don't you dare speak about torture, you have no idea how it feels like,"

"Where were you Draco? When your family tortured me?" she added, her expression showing pure disgust. "You weren't even there."

His lips pursed together before he shook his head in disbelief as he narrowed his eyes, "They locked me up, tell me I couldn't leave my room, I tried to. I really did,"

"Oh,"

"They made me listen to it, to the sound of your screams, I was in my room and I couldn't do anything," he spat, "you were helpless and I couldn't protect you - I broke my promise to you," he said as his tone turned softer this time.

"It wasn't the first time," she murmured under her breath, but still loud enough to be heard by Draco who now was frowning.

The silence fell again between them, two minutes of full silence as Hermione felt a giant lump started growing in her throat. Her tea cup was already empty, and so was Draco's cup of white coffee. The only things left on table that separated them were the damp book, two empty cups, a plate of half-eaten sandwich, and the silence itself. Draco watched as the rain had began to stop, but still leaving the drizzle behind. He realised that in a few moments he could have a proper excuse to leave and to not ever see her again.

"How have you been, Draco?" she finally managed to make herself pouring out the words from her mouth.

"I've been better," he replied nonchalantly as he stared at his lunch.

She looked at him with an intense stare, causing him to scratch the back of his neck uncomfortably, "Can I ask you a question?"

He nodded his head, "Doesn't mean I will answer it,"

"Why did you leave?"

He let out a monotone laugh escaped from his mouth and a smirk played out in his lips, causing Hermione to raise her eyebrows in bewilderment from such bizarre and unforeseen response, "Why do you think?"

"You could've stayed," she replied softly, clearly ignoring his discomfort with the sensitive subject of the conversation.

"I heard you work in the Ministry of Magic," he said, trying to change the topic, to which she answered with a simple nod. "I also heard you are engaged to Weasley," he added.

She glared at him but still maintained her voice, "How did you know?"

"I have my own sources," he shrugged indifferently, living his life as a muggle didn't mean that he had no idea on what was going on in the wizarding world, he had seen her couple of times in the front of Daily Prophet. He knew that she got a decent job in the Ministry and was just recently being promoted as the Deputy Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and that she was recently engaged to the red-headed Weasley as their happy news was covering the front page of Daily Prophet, and Draco would be lying if he said he wasn't trying not to vomit all over the paper when his mother handed him the newspaper.

"Oh," she simply answered,

As he realised that the rain had finally stopped, Draco thanked every Gods - even though he never believed in one nor that he would ever believe in one - the blond man finished his lunch as quick as he could without making himself choke of course, then he wiped up his mouth with the napkin. The tall man stood up in a rush, opened up his wallet and put some muggle money on the table as a tip for Tracy, "I must go now,"

The earth suddenly felt like it rotated faster according to Hermione as everything happened so fast.

"Fancy meeting you here, Granger," he said in one breath before leaving the woman behind him with her mouth open. "Wait!" she managed to call out, but by the time her voice was echoing in the small cafe, the door was already slammed shut.

It was too late.

He was already gone.

* * *

 **Author's note:**

Hello everyone! I'm really excited with this story actually (I've got plenty of things planned)  
So apparently we've found out about what happened with Draco on this chapter, since I didn't really get much feedback on the last chapter, I hope this chapter clarifies everything and persuades you to leave a review or two :-)

As usual, reviews/favs/follows are very much appreciated.

PS: I haven't got time to proof-read the chapter so please excuse any mistakes (and I'll soon edit it)

Have a nice day!


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